On October 23 Tim Hunter captured Comet C/2025 R2 SWAN as it made its way across rich star fields in Capricornus. At this time the comet glows with a total magnitude of about 6.3. Enjoy!
Look at this beautiful desert shot of the Moon with earthshine and Venus in the early morning sky, taken in California by Chris Cook on October 19. A beauty!
The second bright comet in the sky right now is C/2025 R2 SWAN, here captured by Chris Cook on October 18. The objects at right are the Eagle and Omega nebulae in Serpens and Sagittarius. Catch these bright comets!
On October 17 Richard Whitehead caught Comet 2025 R2 SWAN, at about 5th magnitude, zipping past the Eagle and Omega nebulae in Serpens and Sagittarius. A beautiful shot, and get out to catch this comet!
This field in Cepheus and Cygnus is loaded, and was captured beautifully by Chris Schur. At center is the dark nebula Barnard 150. The big emission nebula to its left is Sh 2-129, the Flying Bat Nebula. To the right of B150 lies the pair of a galaxy (NGC 6946) and open cluster (NGC 6939).
Richard Whitehead’s image of the Wizard Nebula in Cepheus, NGC 7380, shows its impressive range of nebulosity and color as the gas begins to form a young open cluster.
Despite universal expansion, on small scales gravitation often brings things together. Such is the case with interacting galaxies such as the Antennae, NGC 4038 and NGC 4039 in Corvus. These galaxies in a merger lie 70 million light-years away, and were captured by Frank Dibbell.
Chris Schur has created the deepest shot he’s ever taken of the Veil Nebula and area, and I think it’s the deepest shot of the Veil I’ve ever seen. A deep look at one of the sky’s best supernova remnants!
The Wizard Nebula in Cepheus, NGC 7380, is a star-forming region lying some 8,500 light-years away. The magnificent portrait by Bob Fera and Steve Mandel shows its complete expanse of some 40 light-years across as the material slowly accretes into a new generation of stars.
Bob Fera and Steve Mandel have imaged a rarely visited deep southern object, the emission nebula NGC 6164 in Norma. Called the Dragon’s Egg Nebula, the object lies 3,900 light-years away and shows an intricate and amazing structure.
Frank Dibbell’s new image of the star forming region IC 410 in Auriga is quite extraordinary — this cloud of mostly hydrogen gas lies some 12,400 light-years away and the gas is churning out a star cluster, NGC 1893.
Check out this breathtaking shot of NGC 6960, a portion of the Veil Nebula, one of the sky’s best supernova remnants. The glowing gas here was expelled by a massive star that ended its life some 15,000 years ago and was here captured by Bob Fera and Steve Mandel.
This is an extraordinary image by Chris Schur showing the faint nebula WR 134, which surrounds an energetic Wolf-Rayet Star in Cygnus. The star that powers this nebula is 400,000 times as luminous as the Sun and lies 5,700 light-years away.
Join us on Saturday, November 15, near Animas, New Mexico, for a great get-together and observing session at Mars New Mexico. We’ll unveil the 30-inch “Lockwood Monster” scope and Clyde Tombaugh”’s telescopes! For more, see www.facebook.com/events/18575...
One of my favorite star clusters in the sky, the Owl Cluster in Cassiopeia (left) appears in this great wide-field view shot by Chris Schur. At right is the planetary nebula Sharpless 2-188. Care to count the stars in this field?
Comet C/2025 A6 Lemmon was shining at about magnitude 6.6 when Richard Whitehead imaged it on October 4, 2025. It now lies in Ursa Major and if you haven’t seen it yet, take a look!
The Iris Nebula in Cepheus is one of the sky’s best examples of a reflection nebula, directing the light from embedded stars toward us via tiny dust grains. Tony Hallas has captured the Iris in amazing detail, from its distance of 1,300 light-years.
Look at this wonderful shot of the Hercules Cluster, one of my favorite early deep-sky objects, by Frank Dibbell. Not only is the cluster recorded well, but also the little background galaxy, NGC 6207, some 1,200 times more distant than the cluster.
Terribly sad news today of the death of Jane Goodall, the world’s leading primatologist, who was a genius and a member of our Starmus Board. She will be dearly missed — there was no one else like her, and was an incredibly nice lady.
